Police warn MSPs off ‘interfering’ in stop-and-search

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Stephen House: considering ending the practice of consensual searches of young peoplePA Archive

Jeremy Watson

Published at 12:01AM, February 10 2015

Rank and file police officers have defended the controversial policy of consensual stop-and-search, warning against “political interference” in policing.

Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs last week that Sir Stephen House, the chief constable of Police Scotland, was considering ending the practice of non-statutory (ie, consensual) searches of young people.

The announcement came after it emerged that the tactic was still being used on children under the age of 12 — despite senior officers telling a Holy-rood committee in June it was “indefensible” and would be scrapped.

However, Calum Steele, the general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, which represents 98 per cent